CHINESE New Year 2018 parades will be celebrated by thousands of revellers today as people of all nationalities unite to mark the Year of the Dog.

But how can you best photograph the Chinese New Year parades and celebrations? Self-taught photographer Guia Besana, whose work has appeared in leading international magazines, shares her top five tips below.

Also known as the Spring Festival, the Chinese Lunar New Year is one of the world’s most celebrated annual events and is observed by communities across the world.

Street parades, swirling dancers and luminous dog-themed floats have been some of the festivities caught on camera today as communities take to the streets for a variety of cultural events.

Events are taking place in Chinatown at major cities across the UK this weekend.

Around 700,000 people are expected to flock to London to celebrate Chinese New Year, making the festival the biggest one outside of China.

In Manchester, there will be a flamboyant dragon parade this Sunday with marital arts displays, funfair and fireworks display at 6pm, while other cities such as Liverpool and Newcastle will be celebrating too.

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How to photograph the Chinese New Year

1. Be prepared

Do your research before you go, find out what streets the festival will be on and where the parades will to avoid missing the action.

Ms Besana said: “Keep in mind how the energy of the festival can change over time, and make a judgement on where you think you will best capture it all. Sometimes this means heading down to the festival location beforehand.

“One of my favourite things to capture is backstage shots of those taking part, doing their make-up and getting into costumes ahead of the festival."

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“As more and more photographers are upskilling themselves to shoot video content, the skill to do this is only likely to get more desirable, so practice where you can.

4. Do something different

Don’t be put off by long exposure - Chinese New Year presents a great opportunity for these kinds of shots with an array of beautiful costumes on show.

VCG VIA GETTY

A large crowd in Chengdu watch a dragon dance to welcome in Chinese New Year 2018

If you are taking pictures in the night time, and thinking of snapping fireworks, Ms Besana recommends using the Canon 5D Mark IV as “this works particularly well when the image quality is at ISO 6400”.

5. Create a colour profile ahead of time

Ms Besena said: “In my experience, the parade for Chinese New Year lasts about an hour, and with so much going on you don’t have time to be fiddling around creating new colour profiles for your camera.

“As one of the most dominant colours for Chinese New Year is red, associated with luck, to produce accurate and consistent images make sure you’ve created a colour profile ahead of time.”

Gaia Besana is an award-winning Italian photographer, currently living between Paris and Barcelona. Her work has been published in leading and international publications.